Today I have a different kind of review: that of a songbook! I greatly enjoy the music in this book, and thought it would be fun to share it with you! Let’s get on to the review, shall we?
“The Bright Lights songbook was designed as a companion to the CD Let My Life Be a Light, released in November of 2009. It contains the piano accompaniment, guitar chords, words, and melody line for each of the songs on the CD, with vocal harmony added to several of the songs. Five additional songs were included in the songbook that are not on the CD.
1. Who Will Shine God’s Light? 2. In Christ Alone 3. Be Thou My Vision 4. The Smile Song 5. Higher Ground 6. I Will Live For You 7. That I May Know Him 8. Before the Throne of God Above 9. Bright Lights 10. Mind of Christ 11. I Am Resolved 12. The Light of the World 13. I Am Your Shield 14. Sing Hallelujah 15. He is Faithful 16. Let My Life Be a Light 17. It is Well With My Soul 18. Trust and Obey 19. My Jesus, I Love Thee 20. Channels Only 21. Immanuel’s Land.” ~source
Title: Let My Life Be a Light: Bright Lights Songbook
Author: Various
Genre(s): Non-fiction, Songbook
Rating: ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ ❤ (five stars)
Romance Content: None. 😀
Recommended age range: Intermediate-Advanced pianists.
My Review:
This is one of my favorite hymn/song arrangement books. Although it’s not technically an arrangement book, because it’s meant to be played along with singers, the songs are beautifully set with lots of “improvising” (except you’re not improvising because you’re playing what’s written 😀 ). Whenever I’m looking for something to play, I often grab this book. There is only one song that I will not play: In Christ Alone. While this song may have good words, it’s often played by CCM artists (at least in my experience), whom I cannot support. Otherwise, I love all of the songs in this book, and I highly recommend it. 🙂
I just found out that they have come out with a CD to go with this and a beginner version of this book. I haven’t used/listened to either of those products, so I can’t endorse them. 😉
Great Books for God's Girls 
I love this songbook! It’s my favorite songbook to play with my violin! I have the CD too and it’s probably my favorite CD. : ) the song “I Will Be Your Shield” is so beautiful!
Ooh, I don’t have the CD but it sounds good! I love “I Will Be Your Shield” too! 😀
I have the beginner version of this and I really love it (great for beginners in levels 3 +4). Much of CCM is NOT God honoring, which is why we only listen to certain songs. It’s sad how they allow songs to be played on “Christian Radio” and you could be singing them to anyone (you know, boyfriend/girlfriend, etc.).
Anyway, I know this is an old post, but I thought I’d comment anyway. 🙂
Great review! There’s something I’m confused about, though. I respect that you don’t support the CMM crowd, but I don’t understand the reason you gave for not playing In Christ Alone. There are other songs, such as Amazing Grace or Come Thou Fount, that CCM artists play and you still sing those anyway. I hope you don’t think I’m trying to blast you or anything. I just want to understand what you meant when you said that ❤
I meant CMM, not CCM xD
In Christ Alone is written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend. I haven’t listened to a lot of music by them, but from my understanding, they (at least Mr. Getty) are very much CCM musicians (correct me if I’m wrong; like I said, I haven’t listened to him). Amazing Grace, on the other hand, was written by John Newton. He lived a long time ago (like in the 1800s), and was definitely not a CCM artist. I don’t know much history on Come Thou Fount, but I think it has a similar backstory to Amazing Grace. While I agree that In Christ Alone has some very moving words, and I agree with most, if not all, of the words, I just don’t want to support the CCM crowd. Also, when I hear people sing In Christ Alone (I heard it at a wedding once), they seem to have very sensual tones (and I realize that it’s probably very “toned down” from normal CCM music). I just don’t agree with that. The way we sing Amazing Grace and Come Thou Fount, the focus is on God, not on whoever is singing it.
To summarize, there are several aspects of music. One is the words, and the meaning thereof. Another is the beat, or the way it is played. A third is the person who wrote it or the person performing it, and what their testimony is. In Amazing Grace, I agree with the words and Mr. Newton’s history (there is a great story behind that hymn, if you’re interested in looking into it). However, some people may play it in a way that I don’t agree with. This is just an example of a way that I choose music that I want to listen to/play. 🙂
Wow, I didn’t mean to make this comment so long… 😀 Does that make a little more sense? 😉
I don’t necessarily agree with the tone thing because many people sing their hearts out to the Lord, but I think makes sense overall.
Well, I get it when they sing their hearts out, but there is a way to twist your voice in a sensual way… the book Baptist Music Wars talks about this; people that have studied music agree, although I don’t know a lot about it. 😉
Do you know what sensual means?
One thing you should also consider is that man is sinful, and they can use anything improperly, which includes the Bible. Man constantly twists scripture to the way they want it to be, disregarding other parts. Should we then stop using the Bible?
I wasn’t there at the wedding you mentioned (obviously xD), so I can’t speak for those there. But my overall thought is that the song should be judged on its’ on merit, not on the actions of an unauthorized party.
Chloe, my goal here is not to get into a big argument. I want to share what I believe, but I don’t want this to strain our relationship. For this reason, I’m going to end the discussion here. I love you, and you’re still on my daily prayer list! ❤ ❤
In Christ,
Leona
Sorry if it appeared that I was trying to argue with you. I was trying to understand your point of view. Sometimes when people try to explain things to me, I just can’t understand what they’re saying (and Leah knows this all too well xD). I probably didn’t really go about this correctly since I was trying to share what I believed as well (this is pretty much one of my first times having a debate of sorts with someone, so I probably was oblivious and clueless).
Even though we may not agree on things, having a strong relationship with each other is key. Have a great Sunday evening ❤
Okay, that’s fine. It’s hard to tell what other people’s tones are on the internet. I was afraid that you were getting mad at me, and I was getting a little frustrated myself. My mom has been helping me with writing these comments, and she suggested that it was time to end the discussion; I agreed. Anyway, have a nice day! ❤
I thought you were getting mad at me too. The internet can be frustrating sometimes xD
Ooh, I want this hymnal!!! I didn’t know that bright lights had a song book; that’s so cool!
Yes, CMM is definitely NOT cool… But I still like the song In Christ Alone. The only song that I don’t like as much is The Smile Song. This is a cute song, and most of the words are great, but I believe that it says in the chorus, “A smile, a smile, makes my life worthwhile…”. It’s not smiling that makes our life worthwhile, it’s Jesus! (: We have made up other versions of the song and changed around that sentence before, though.
Great post!!! ❤
Oh, good point about the Smile Song… I never thought about that before! 😛 Thanks for commenting! 🙂